Pages

November 12, 2014

Join the first annual Vintage Secret Santa gift exchange

The online vintage community is a marvelous, giving, fun filled place and as such it struck me recently that we should have an annual Vintage Secret Santa gift exchange. I floated this idea past some fellow vintage bloggers and it got a very enthusiastic response, which really encouraged me to go ahead with this exciting idea.

This Vintage Secret Santa will work like most Secret Santas. Interested participants submit their email and mailing addresses (along with an optional line or two about themselves and their interests). I will then create completely random pairings, and you'll be responsible to send out a gift to the person whose name and address you receive (you'll be their Secret Santa).

You will not receive a gift from the same person you're sending one to, unless such happens purely by coincidence. Instead another participant entirely will receive your information and send a present your way - so hence the "secret" in "Secret Santa". :)

I will be organizing this Vintage Secret Santa, Chronically Vintage's first ever, so if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask in the comments below or email me anytime.

If you'd like to participate, here are the guidelines:

❄ Please sign up using this quick and easy participation form (your information will be kept strictly confidential, with only myself and the person who will be sending you your Secret Santa gift being privy to it).

❄ Participants may sign up to take part in this Vintage Secret Santa until November 25, 2014. On this date, I will begin assigning swap partners and will email everyone involved with their gift recipient's name by no later than November 30th.

❄ This Vintage Secret Santa is open to participants from around the globe. You may be assigned a recipient in your own country or elsewhere in the world, just depending on the random Vintage Secret Santa recipient that you are matched with. (Each participant will receive one randomly selected recipient.)

❄ You do not have to observe Christmas to take part. This festive Secret Santa exchange is open to everyone regardless of their personal beliefs or any other factors. You are welcome to think of it as a wintertime vintage gift swap, if you would prefer.

❄ Gifts (or the combined value of the gifts in your Vintage Secret Santa parcel) are encouraged to be of a value of at least $15.00 USA. There is no cap on how much you can spend, but do keep in mind that shipping can quickly add up when sending larger items and/or heavier parcels, especially outside of your own country, so you may want to opt for smaller sized presents.

❄ You may mail gifts to your Vintage Secret Santa recipient from your own home or order them online and have them sent directly to the person you're giving to. This can be a great way to help cut down on shipping costs.

❄ Gifts can be handmade, store bought or a combination of the two.

❄ Gifts are encouraged to be vintage, vintage reproduction, vintage inspired, vintage appropriate (for example, a new, unused tube of your favourite red lipstick), handmade or similar, but ultimately so long as the present(s) given is/are thoughtful and abide by the rules in the next point below, the sky is the limit.

❄ Please do not send anything live, perishable, dangerous, illegal, of an explicit nature, or which could easily be perceived as racist, sexist, frightening, or otherwise offensive.

❄ Giftees are encouraged to send their presents out before Friday, December 12, 2014 in the hope that they will arrive by, or right around, Christmas Day. Please keep in mind that parcels sent to international destinations will most likely take longer to arrive, so posting them out ASAP is always a good idea.

❄ By signing upto take part you acknowledge that you will do everything in your power to send out a gift to the Secret Santa name that you are partnered with. If for some reason you do not believe you will be able to do so before the deadline to mail out gifts arrives (December 12th), please contact me immediately.

❄ Use the hashtag #vintagesecretsanta when sharing about this festive gift exchange and/or the present(s) you received on your blog and/or social media.

❄ ❄ ❄

That's all there is to it, my dears. It's very straightforward and tons of fun!

This should go without saying, but of course our Vintage Secret Santa is open to both male and female participants. As touched on above, and given the name of this Secret Santa exchange, it would be awesome if your gift(s) was/were vintage related in some capacity, but they don't have to be.

I will of course be taking part myself and in the event that an uneven number of participants join up, I'll send out packages to two different people to ensure that no one goes without a Vintage Secret Santa partner.

There is always a risk with Secret Santas of some folks who sign up not actually following through and sending a present, but given the very close-knit nature of this community and the fact that so many of us are friends or acquaintances already, I'm optimistic that such will not be the case here. Still, on the off chance that it does occur for one or more people, if you'd be available to send a second gift out to someone who did not receive one from their assigned partner, please let me know and I will put you on a designated list.

Of course, if you'd like to send your Vintage Secret Santa partner something from my Etsy shop, I'd be thrilled about that and will provide complimentary gift wrapping and a holiday card for your recipient (please email or Etsy private message me to let me know and I'll do just that before posting your order out).

We all love giving and receiving during the holiday season and this is your chance to help spread festive cheer within our own fabulous online vintage community.

If you're taking part, I highly encourage you to share the link to this post (and the vintage Santa Claus family image above) on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, your blog, or absolutely anywhere else you'd like (remember to use the hashtag #vintagesecretsanta when you do). There's no cap on the number of people who can take part in this Secret Santa, so the more folks who hear about it, the better!

This is going to be a marvelous experience for all of us and I wholeheartedly want to thank everyone who takes part in advance. I'll be posting a festive recap here of how things unfolded with this inaugural Vintage Secret Santa in the new year.

Sign up, send out a delightful gift, receive one in return from someone else, and have a blast swapping vintage Secret Santa presents while sharing your passion for the past this holiday season.

ahhh you beat me to this! I was thinking how I could do a "thriftmas" type of exchange where other avid thrifters could thrift a gift for another thrift loving person. I obviously signed up and can't wait to see who I am paired with:) I don't get many vintage related gifts so this will be a real treat!

Yay!!! I'm delighted that you'll be taking part, sweet dear. Thank you very much. I'm so excited about this fun CV first as well. In fact, I couldn't fall asleep until after 4 am last night because of how much I was bubbling over with giddy excitement, knowing that the post was going live today (now, technically yesterday).

It's my absolute pleasure, dear gal. Thank you very much for both taking part and for raising that excellent point. I'm in much the same ship (when it comes to real world friends who live in my area) and subconsciously, it strikes me now, that must have been part of the reason why the moment I struck upon this idea, I knew that I wanted to make it happen.

All signed up and ready to go. I'm super excited to participate in a vintage Christmas party. So very glad you decided to take the plunge and host this wonderful exchange. I think this is a terrific way to have fun and connect the vintage loving community together. I can't wait to see who I get paired up with.

Thank you very much for your fabulous enthusiasm and for signing up, sweet Cherry. I'm thrilled that you have and am so excited to see who gets paired with who as well. Tony (endlessly talented chap that he is) is going to write a script that will randomly assign all the participants with one another, but as I'll be informing everyone of their swap partners, I'll be privy to seeing who received who. I hope that folks will tag, share and post about their gifts and this exchange, as I really want to feature some of them in the follow up post about in the new year.

It's my sincere pleasure to do, dear Bonita. Thank you very much for your wonderful enthusiasm and for taking part in this exciting new annual tradition. I hope you have a blast shopping for your VSS partner.

Yay!!! Me, too! :D I was so excited about announcing it, that I couldn't fall asleep until after 4 am last night. I really hope things hit the ground running this year, go wonderfully, and it can become an annual tradition from here on out.

Hi lovely Nicholette, the option to remain anonymous or not is entirely up to you. I know some people prefer it and others want to remain entirely unknown. I don't have experience with using USPS's shipping service (just Canada Post's), but when you impute your name, could you change it to "Santa" or "Mrs. Claus" or does it have to be your real name?

If so, and you don't want to share it, perhaps mailing directly from the post office or with stamps would be a better way to go.

Thanks so much for your enthusiasm and interest in taking part. I really hope you do!

Wonderful idea, Jessica!I haven't had a sScret Santa game since I was in high school. It's been ages (I dare say), and up until now I haven't realized how much I've missed it. Surely, I'll participate!As a matter of fact, I can't wait - it the most magnificent feeling.. not knowing who, or what.. oh!*she sat back and exhaled deeply*I must try to tell myself: "Calm yourself down" :)

You're a genious, Jess!Mighty thanks for this! this is going to be amazing, I can feel it!

Thank you very much, my dear friend. If memory serves me right, I haven't taken part in one since my (early) teenage years either. We would almost always do them in Girl Guides and sometimes in school as well, but it's been a rather long time since so days and I wholeheartedly share in your enthusiasm and eagerness for this one. Hopefully it can become an annual event and then none of us will have to go years or even decades again between Secret Santa swaps any longer.

What a fabulous idea! Thank you for organising Jessica. I've just signed up (and now going off to share!) I've always loved the challenge of finding a great gift, especially for a Secret Santa. And I can't wait to see all the presents. Tricia

That's fabulous, Tricia, thank you very much for both signing up and for sharing about it (I really appreciate that). I'm sooo looking forward to seeing the presents that folks opt to share publicly as well. Hopefully there will be lots of photos tagged with #vintagesecretsanta so that I can stuff January's follow-up post full of them! :)

Thank you sweetly, dear Esther. I'm thrilled that you're thrilled and hope that you'll sign up. We got over 50 participants in the first 24 hours, so there are going to be a lot of mail carriers delivering surprise vintage gifts in the near future and I'd love for one to be headed your way. :)

what a fab idea!! Am signing up right now. Will defintely be looking forward to seeing all the photos and sm shares. We should have a Christmas party, where we all go online and share what we got in our secret santa parcel and celebrate in vintage style (mince pies and mulled wine anyone)? Thanks so much for hosting this Jessica - so excited to be taking part. x x

Oh, Jessica, you're so sweet. Happy (early) holiday wishes to you, too. I'm already very much in the holiday spirit -- yesterday I made my shopping list for (American) Thanksgiving, and my tradition each year is to stay as far away from stores as possible on Black Friday, holing up and being cozy in my house and starting my Christmas cards. I'm already looking forward to it!

I've started working on my Christmas card list and hope to get them all out the door by the first week of December. I always send so many more cards than we receive in return, but that's okay, I simply love letting my friends and relative know that they're in my thoughts and heart come the holiday season and that this old school gal is still happily sending real (aka, not e-cards) every year.

I hope you have a splendid Thanksgiving. As much as I enjoy Canada's in mid-October, it would be great to experience it at the end of November sometimes. Without that to look forward to here, fall essentially ends for most people come November 1st, once Halloween has wrapped up for another year. I wish we had a holiday in late November to leave pumpkins and fall decor out for all that much longer. I still do sometimes even without it, but still, I think Canada needs to invent a new holiday for us to enjoy on the same day as US Thanksgiving. :)

It really is! There is such a special, fulfilling joy that comes with giving to others. Thank you very much for taking part, dear Kimberly, I'm delighted that you're going to be involved with CV's first Vintage Secret Santa gift exchange.

This is such a fantastic idea, thank you for putting it all together! I don't have any friends that are interested in vintage so this really is a thrill. I'm in the process of signing up now but my mind has suddenly gone blank at what my interests are, haha! No doubt from the excitement! I can't wait to go shopping for a gift, especially at the prospect of shopping for another decade than what I'm used to. Often I'll see lovely vintage items that aren't 'me', it'll be great to put them to good use!

It's my sincere pleasure, dear Faye. Many thanks in turn for your wonderful comment and for raising that great point. I too sometimes encounter vintage items that aren't my decades and so have to pass them up (well, more so before I had an Etsy store to shop for :)). I'd love to get paired with someone who fancies the 20s or 60s, say, and get a chance to shop for one of those decades on purpose.

Many thanks for joining up. I'm delighted that you're part of this exciting first annual Vintage Secret Santa!

Hi Jessica! Your Secret Santa exchange sounds like fun!....I won't be able to participate this year....I will be away on vacation to visit my mom...but it sure sounds like a blast! Have fun, I can't wait to see the future post on this ! <3

Hi lovely Laura, thank you very much! I hope you have a safe, fabulous trip to see your mom and a beautiful Christmas season. Ideally this is going to become an annual event, so perhaps you'll be able to take part in future years. I'd love for you to!

That's fabulous, Akram dear, thank you very much for taking part. It really is my pleasure. I love that this is bringing so many of us vintage ladies and gents from around the world together in the spirit of the holiday season.

Thank you sweetly, dear Holly. No worries in the slightest, I completely understand. Ideally, I do want this to become an annual event and would love to have you take part next year (and/or in other future holiday seasons).

Yippie!!! I'm so glad that you caught wind of this post and have signed up, dear Alison. It's fabulous to have you on board with this exciting inaugural Vintage Secret Santa. Thank you very much for taking part!

Delightful, I'm signing up now! My extended family always does our gifts in a drawing like this as there are so many of us, and it would be great fun to do this within the vintage community... I always do love a good gift exchange (and the excuse to put together a fun gift for another vintage-loving gal!)

Yay!!! I'm so delighted that you're taking part, Frances. Thank you very much for signing up and for sharing in the enthusiasm. We've got over 100 participants already and I just know this is going to be amazing for everybody involved!!!

That is so sweet of you, dear Sanne. Thank you very much. I truly hope that everyone who signs up is able to ship a gift, but having a few super thoughtful folks who are happy to send to a second person if need be, is so wonderful and speaks volumes about the kind of immensely nice people (like you!) who make up our online vintage community.

Hi Jessica,I'm more of a vintage sewer than anything else. Do you think a vintage sewer's parcel would be appropriate? I don't want to disappoint anyone!Also - are you based out of BC Okanagan area?Thanks Angela

Hi Angela, thank you very much for your comment and question. I think a vintage sewer's parcel or featuring a gift that you'd sewn yourself would be fantastic. In case the other person wasn't a sewer themselves, I might stick with items, say like vintage buttons, trims, old sewing magazines/booklets, etc that would be apt to appeal to a broader range of people (most crafters, for example, love vintage sewing notions, too, as they can work for everything from scrapbook pages to handmade jewelry).

I am indeed! Penticton, to be exact. Are you in the Okanagan yourself as well?

How lovely! Please don't hesitate to let me know the next time you're in town. Traveling is tricky because of my health, but I am trying to get to the Coast at least once a year these days (especially since I need to source items for my Etsy vintage shop and there are more sources to do so from in such a large, heavily populated part of the province), so perhaps we could meetup on your end, as you suggested, too. One spot or another. :)

Yay!!! I'm delighted that you're taking part, dear Doris. Thank you very much! The number of folks that have joined so far is nearing 150 already and there's still a week left for people to sign up, so who knows, perhaps we'll get to 175 or even 200.

It's my sincere pleasure to organize this event. I really hope it can become an annual tradition here.

Ooh, this is so exciting! I just signed up and I can't wait to hear about who I'm sending to. Who knows? it may even be a blogger that I follow. :) I hope it becomes a tradition because I have a feeling that this is going to be a bunch of fun. :) Thank you!

Hi Hannah dear, thank you very much for taking part in our exciting first annual Vintage Secret Santa. I have every intention of making this an annual event and hope that it will continue to grow and blossom further with each passing year. We're up to 180+ participants the last time I checked and I suspect we'll surpass the 200 mark by the cutoff date to join (Nov. 25th).

Thanks again & the very happiest of holiday season wishes to you,♥ Jessica

Hello everyone, I want to thank each of you for signing up for Chronically Vintage's first annual Vintage Secret Santa gift exchange. As it's now after midnight on November 25th, the signup form has been closed and I will start mailing out matches later today. If you haven't received your #vintagesecretsanta match by November 30th, please email me right away so that I can provide you with it.

The support and enthusiasm for this festive present exchange has blown me away and I'm thrilled to say that we have 261 people taking part in it. This is really going to be amazing, everyone. Thank you again and please don't forget to tag your posts and photos (on Instragram, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, etc with the hashtag #vintagesecretsanta), so that we can all see what other people who are taking part have received as their VSS present(s).

Thank you very much, sweet dear. I'm elated with how much this idea took off and found favour with many in our online community. I really look forward to turning it into an annual event and hopefully growing the number of participants further every year so that even more folks can delight in the festive fun of this holiday season gift exchange.

Sweet Lorena, I'm very sorry that an inefficient postal system prevented you from being able to take part. Canada's does usually work, but it's extremely expensive (even at a national level), so I can relate to degree. If you'd ever like to take a gamble on the mail, I'd be delighted to do a small personal gift exchange with you anytime, my dear friend.

Hi Angela, thank you very much for your interest in CV's first annual Vintage Secret Santa gift exchange. The deadline to join was November 25th and all matches have already been sent out for this year, but I do sincerely hope to make this an annual event and encourage you to signup when next year's rolls around.

Hi Kitty, thank you for getting in touch. The form was closed on November 25th, so no one was able to sign up after that point, thus if you did, it would have happened before that date. If you signed up and you're not seeing your match email, please check your spam/junk mail, deleted messages, and archived messages folders going back to November 25th (we sent out all matches between the 25th and 27th, and genuinely quadruple checked that everyone was emailed a match). If you're not seeing it there, please drop me a line by email (chronicallyvintage@gmail.com) and I will resend it to you on the double.

Hi Heidi, thank you very much for your comment and interest in this year's Vintage Secret Santa gift exchange. I will be creating a new signup form and announcing 2015's VSS here (and on social media) in the first week of November. So definitely stay tuned! :)

I'm Jessica, a lifelong lover of all things antique and vintage, especially those from the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

This blog is my visual scrapbook in which I record and share my thoughts on the multitude of sources, people and products that inspire and feed a modern gal's addiction to the past. I also post about the vintage clothes, hairstyles and make-up looks that I adore wearing.

Stay a spell and have a blast as we explore the incomparably fantastic world of vintage history and fashion together.

All images used on this site are credited to their original posters/creators/sources,
however if at any time you would prefer not to see one of your images here, please email me and I'll take it down right away.

PS...I just wanted to say thank you very much for visiting and to tell you that you're equal parts awesome and beautiful.